Input received at sessions around the state in late November will help shape an update to 42-year-old rules governing overtime pay. New rules could also impact who gets paid sick leave.
Washington’s outdated overtime rules are up for discussion at a series of public feedback sessions scheduled around the state later this month.
The state Department of Labor and Industries is in the midst of updating rules including the 42-year-old overtime salary threshold, which now falls well below the state’s minimum wage and thereby exempts thousands of workers in the state who would otherwise be paid time-and-a-half for hours worked beyond 40 in a week.
The rules revision affects more than just who is exempt from overtime pay, thanks to legislation that ties the state’s new paid sick leave requirements to minimum wage rules.
“If you’re exempt from overtime under the state rules, you’re also exempt from receiving the paid sick leave,” said David Johnson, Labor and Industries’ employment standards program manager.
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The department developed an initial range of options for the salary threshold and is also re-evaluating the standards that determine whether certain administrative and executive jobs are exempt from overtime. It will narrow those options in a second batch of pre-draft rules due out later this month.
People can provide feedback on the revised pre-draft rules at sessions  from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on the following dates:
— Nov. 27 at The Swedish Club, 1920 Dexter Ave. N., Seattle
— Nov. 28 at the Hilton Garden Inn, 401 E. Yakima Ave., Yakima
— Nov. 29 at the L&I Vancouver Service Office, 312 S.E. Stonemill Drive, Suite 120, Vancouver
More information is available at the Labor and Industries website.
A formal draft set of rules is due around the end of the year or early in 2019.